Troubled Newton gets fresh start

Andrew Hornery
Published: November 17, 2012 - 3:00AM

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The chance of a new beginning for Matthew Newton following Thursday's US court decision not to have an assault conviction recorded against him was welcomed by his greatest supporters, including controversial lawyer Chris Murphy.

Within minutes of the news breaking Murphy tweeted: ''Gratifying to see Matthew Newton rise above difficult issues. Grateful to the USA for the magnificent @bettyfordcenter. A better life.''

But PS can only wonder what parents Bert and Patti Newton must be making of it all.

The past few years have indeed been troubling for the couple and fractured their once tight family.

It's all a million miles from far happier days when the Newtons were Australia's pin-up showbiz family.

They were once such a picture of familial perfection they were enlisted for an advertising campaign in 1978 promoting the most wholesome of products, Johnson's Baby Powder.

Bert and Patti appeared in the ad wearing matching pristine white terry-towelling bathrobes, with Patti covered in baby powder as she lovingly kissed her baby Matthew on the cheek, while proud father Bert smiled broadly, resplendent in gold medallions on his thatch of ginger chest hair. The accompanying text informs readers: ''In the Newton family, everybody stays dry, fresh and comfortable with pure, soft absorbent Johnson's Baby Powder.''

On Thursday Newton was ordered to pay a US hotel clerk $US11,500 ($11,100) - he was arrested in April over allegations he punched the clerk in the face. The charges were dismissed on the condition Newton made the payment, apologised in writing and completed 50 hours of community service and an anger management course.

In-crowd's ticket to happiness

Her billionaire brother James Packer drops $50 million on a gleaming superyacht to feel happy - with mixed results, as PS discovered - but for Gretel Packer, happiness is just a $40 ticket away. She is one of Sydney's rich and famous who are beating a path to a new ''club'' set up by three new-age meditation gurus offering to show members the path to enlightenment.

Called the Conscious Club, over the past year its members have included the heiress Packer, television personality Jamie Durie, sass & bide fashion designers Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke, high-profile architect Nick Tobias, Wallabies player Berrick Barnes, and clothing designers George Gorrow and Dan Single, along with a growing band of models and corporate high-flyers.

Conscious Club's co-founder Tim Brown agreed with PS that when you hear the term ''transcendental meditation'', it is images of hairy hippies rather than fashion models, heiresses, fashionistas, socialites, television personalities and corporate animals which come to mind. ''But despite all the material trappings of their lives, they are seeking something more meaningful; we show them how to achieve that through meditation,'' Brown told PS.

Conscious Club was created by Brown, Gary Gorrow and Lee Te Hira, and more than 400 well-heeled members turned up for its most recent gathering at the Chauvel Cinema in Paddington on Wednesday night.

Having paid $40 for their tickets and gathered in the cinema, they listened to the former stripper and latter-day television personality Durie, who took the stage to explain how meditation had transformed his life.

Afterwards the audience listened to a musician known only as Prabhu who was billed as playing ''magical tunes'' on his Swiss hand-made instrument called a hang. On Prabhu's website, his music is summed up thus: ''Hypnotic rhythms carry you on a journey of your heartbeat, where you can ride the waves in free abandon and bliss.''

Soon after, the lights were dimmed and the audience engaged in a group meditation session, which lasted for 20 minutes of total silence, followed by a vegetarian banquet.

''A lot of people think this is all hocus pocus, but we wanted to show those people who would not normally do this sort of thing that it can have very real benefits,'' Brown enthused.

''Instead of going to a club and getting unconscious on booze, we are promoting a night out which is all about enhancing your consciousness.''

Jack's back for polo dalliance

Ladies, start your engines.

One of the country's most eligible men is in town on Saturday for the annual Paspaley Polo in the City match in Centennial Park.

When it comes to Aussie blue bloods, they don't come much bluer than Jack ''Ruki'' Baillieu, a member of Melbourne's mega-wealthy Baillieu clan, which BRW valued at some $300 million this year, give or take a few million.

Baillieu splits his time between Australia, Britain, Santa Barbara and Argentina playing in the international polo circuit. Polo magazines describe him as ''a charming devil on horseback''.

During his international forays Baillieu regularly plays with lords and ladies, property tycoons, billionaires and in the US has played for seven years for the Jimmy Choo team.

Then there's the exhibition matches, including the Prince's Trust, a charity set up by Prince Charles, in which he plays alongside Princes William and Harry, whom he fondly refers to as ''the Prince boys''.

The Paspaley family is upping the ante this year and has created a double-storey pavilion with viewing deck in the VIP marquee. Guests include Ashley Hart, Nikki Phillips, Hoda Waterhouse, Lee and Shane Watson, Glenn and Sara McGrath, Pip Edwards and Natarsha Belling.

Price of a legend

This week's news that INXS was disbanding has once again resurrected memories of its former frontman, the late Michael Hutchence, pictured right. It has been a year since reports emerged that there were two Hutchence biographical films on the way, one by British film maker Asa Bailey and one by writer/director Richard Lowenstein, who is producing the film alongside Sue Murray, who confirmed the project was still very much in development. One of the great obstacles for both projects has been securing copyright to the many songs Hutchence and INXS were famous for. Los Angeles based agency APA, which controls Hutchence's intellectual property on behalf of Michael's Trust, has already publicly stated it had not ''approved or endorsed'' any movies, while insiders say securing the rights to the band's music could prove so costly it would kill off any such project.

Chest of friends

It was a meeting of, ahem, minds when Real Housewives of Beverley Hills star Taylor Armstrong met with Sydney's Charlotte Dawson. Armstrong told PS she and Dawson discovered they had ''sooo much in common'' when they met on the set of Project Runway this week. While Dawson's various Twitter episodes have been documented Armstrong, pictured right, told PS she had to call in the FBI when her daughter, Kennedy, received death threats on Twitter recently. ''I was getting all these twisted, hateful messages and threats being made to my daughter. We had to put her in hiding because I was so worried. I spent thousands of dollars on lawyers trying to get Twitter to reveal the identity of the Twitter account holder but it got me no where,'' she said. ''It was only when the FBI got involved that they tracked the person down, and it turned out to be an 18-year-old girl who had become frustrated because I had not responded to her Tweets. It was just some stupid kid!''

Inner pieces

On Sunday, the contents of one of Sydney's most extraordinary homes goes under the hammer with the estate of the late interior decorator and former Sun- Herald social diarist Leslie Walford, AM being auctioned by Mossgreen at Woollahra's Tim Olsen Gallery. However Walford's collection of personal diaries is not up for sale. Walford's partner, Colin Davies, informed PS the diaries had been bequeathed to the Historic Houses Trust of NSW.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/private-sydney/troubled-newton-gets-fresh-start-20121116-29htl.html